How Pam Garvey became a teacher and stuck with it for more than 13 years
By: ETHAN MACALUSO
Contributing Writer
For more than 13 years, Pam Garvey has shown up to work as a professor; at a job that she never envisioned on getting. It was just a “happy accident,” Garvey said.
Garvey giggled as she told her story of how she received her first job interview. “It is actually a really funny story; after I graduated from college a friend of mine told me to put in an application at a high school in Baltimore to teach summer school. I told [my friend] that I only had my basic English degree. [Garvey’s friend said] ‘I have a Math degree, but I am teaching Spanish because I am from Puerto Rico.’”
And her journey into teaching began.
“I got the job a day before summer school was supposed to start; they told me to teach literature, grammar and vocabulary. I was like ‘what literature, grammar, and vocabulary?’” Garvey said. “After they told me I received the job, the principal at the high school told me ‘these are the dumb ones. Just get them to pass.’ That was the only guidance I was given.”
Garvey, a native of Long Island, N.Y. and graduate of Loyola University in Baltimore, Garvey said she became an English major because she liked literature, but she admitted, at the time, she did not have a direction with literature. “Before becoming a teacher I worked at a book store and I worked for an insurance company, which I did very well, but I hated it.”
“I would bring books to read, and one day another woman said ‘you read books well,’ so I knew that job wasn’t for me,” Garvey said. “I thought ‘I have to get out of this place,’ so I quit that job and I was only working for the [school book] store.”
Garvey later decided to go back to college to obtain a graduate degree. “As part of my graduate degree, I had to do some editing and freelance for my degree. In addition to that I had to do public readings for school and I enjoyed them so much I have done them ever since for about 17 years,” Garvey said.
Her experiences with teaching and public readings eventually led to publishing. “Now that I have been a teacher/professor for over 13 years, I decided one day at the advice of a friend to create my own book about my personal favorite pieces of literature,” Garvey said.
Her first published book was titled “Fear.” “A mentor from graduate school told me to write a book about things that terrifies you and that is what I did,” Garvey said.
Garvey’s second book, “Things Impossible to Swallow,” evolved after a friend invited her to write it. “That book came together in a weird way. It is a collection of my personal favorite pieces that are hard to accept,” Garvey said.
According to Meramec English Professor Lisa Mizes, stories from Garvey’s books are often read by her colleagues. “They are well-written and very enjoyable to read,” Mizes said.
Mizes said Garvey’s passion for literature and life has impacted her teaching. “She is a close friend, a wonderful colleague, and an enthusiastic person,” said Mizes. “She is calm, cool, and collected about what she teaches and she is also very knowledgeable about what she teaches.”
When asked how long she expects to remain a professor, Garvey said in a resounding fashion, “I have everything planned out. I will teach for 14 more years, and then I will retire to a warm weather place,” Garvey said. “My son will be 24 years old and I will never have to experience winter again.”
